How to Screenshot on Mac

How to take screenshot on Mac - If you have been using Windows system for a long, and now, planning to shift to a Mac then, you might be desiring to know different functions in a Mac. One of the handiest and required feature is to take screenshots on Mac.  You might be curious about how to take screenshots without the use of Print Screen key on the keyboard. Another reason for taking screenshots on Mac can be your work. Don't worry as I will provide a number of methods to capture screenshots including those available in macOS versions of High Sierra, Mojave or Catalina. Also, macOS Mojave provided a new screenshot tool and keyboard tool.

How to take screenshots on Mac - Here is the detailed description on how to screenshot on a Mac

BY THE USE OF KEYBOARD COMMANDS

The easiest and most comfortable way to take a screenshot on a Mac whether you are capturing the screenshot of the entire screen or just a part of it is by using the macOS keyboard commands. You can ask any Mac user regarding this method. By default, all of Apple’s own methods will take and save your screenshot to the desktop itself. If you just want to copy the screenshot to the clipboard, hold the Control key while you press any of the key combinations given below.

To screenshot the entire screen:

Press Command + Shift + 3 Keys simultaneously to capture the screenshot of your entire Mac screen. This will also save a screenshot of your entire screen to your desktop. By the way, you can also use the same combination of keys with the Control key for saving the screenshot to the clipboard of yours.

To screenshot a selected portion:

Press Command + Shift + 4 Keys simultaneously to take the screenshot of a specific or selected area of the system by turning your mouse cursor into a crosshair, which the user can drag to select the area, he wants to capture. Upon releasing the mouse button, the screenshot will be captured and saved to your desktop.

You can also press Command + Shift + 5 keys simultaneously if you’re using macOS versions like Mojave or later, which will give an on-screen display option showing what will be captured and this can be moved or resized as needed. This key combination also provides you with a small panel at the bottom of your display having your screen capture options. 

Your selected captured screenshot will then be saved to the desktop. You can also hit the Control key to save the screenshot to the clipboard.

There is a total of three screenshot buttons that can be used to capture the entire screen, a window or a selected region of your screen. To exit from the screenshot panel, the user can use the X button on the left side or just press the Escape key.

The options button is present on the right side that allows you choose the location where to save your screenshot - Desktop, Clipboard, Documents, Messages, Mail or Preview and provides a 5- or 10-second delay thus the user can line up items that might otherwise disappear when the user engages the screenshot tool.

To screenshot a single window:

Step 1: Press the Command + Shift + 4 keys simultaneously which will turn the mouse arrow or cursor to a crosshair.

Step 2: Hit the Spacebar. And, the pointer will transform into a camera type icon.

Step 3: Now, the user will see that any window he levitates over will now be outlined in blue colour. This shows that only this window will be captured when the screenshot is taken.

Step 4: Select the window you want to screenshot and then, click on the window and an image of it will be saved to the desktop.

The image of the screenshot you saved will be a transparent PNG of the window, along with its shadow. If you don’t want the shadow to be saved along with the PNG, you can press and hold the Option key (written as Alt on some Mac keyboards) as you click to save the image.

Same as other screenshot methods, add Control to the key combination in order to ensure that the image is saved to the clipboard instead of your desktop.